A
Matter Of Time In Bethlehem
By Mick Ryan
After agreeing to a
request from The Christmas Decorators to document their trip to Palestine to
decorate the iconic Christmas tree in Manger Square in Bethlehem, I came up
with an idea!
Wouldn’t it be good to
do a time-lapse video of the tree being decorated from start to finish?
Estimated time for complete job was 24 hours. Nick, managing director of The
Christmas Decorators, a Liverpool-based firm, thought it was a great idea
because it was something they hadn’t done previously and it could perhaps help
them gain more publicity.
And so to the next
stage – figuring out how this could be done. I was aware of the time-lapse
capabilities of my Canon 5D mk11 (with a few additions), but I needed my DSLR
with me for the reportage shots I also needed to take, plus, I didn’t want to
take two bodies with me. Also, I didn’t know the layout of the place or how
secure my equipment would be left somewhere for 20-plus hours.
After reading Nick
Stubbs’ review of the Gopro3 Black on the All Things Photography website and
finding out that time-lapse capabilities were included, I decided to order it
from the GoPro website.
GoPro no-show
At this point, I must
admit, I hadn’t checked stock availability. Two days before my flight to Tel
Aviv and GoPro was a no-show! After some searching I found the number for their
office in Holland. I rang them and was told, as stated on website, they had no
stock till Monday 17 December. My flight was scheduled for Wednesday 12
December!
Plan B! I went back
online and searched for time-lapse cameras (the “GoPro3 Hero is good…” Yeah, I
know!) Then KGB cameras of Wellingborough came out the blue with an advert for
the Brinno TLC 200 Time Lapse Camera. I did some research, knowing that I was
going to buy it anyway. It didn’t get great reviews, but I phoned up and
explained my needs and asked if they could get it delivered the following
morning to my parents’ house, because I also had to sort out my passport. They
could and they did.
I opened the box to find
a camera that looked like a pepper pot. I played around with it for a bit;
filming myself packing my suitcase and camera bag. It was ok. It’ll do the job,
so into my bag it went.
Time for action
We flew to Tel Aviv
and then made the journey by road to Bethlehem in a blacked-out minibus. We
arrived at our hotel Inter Continental, Bethlehem, which was very nice, I must
say. Bags safely deposited in our rooms, by now it was 11pm, but thankfully we
were not too far away from Manger Square. After a Twenty Five-minute walk and
with the time fast approaching midnight, finally, we arrived. I couldn’t really
see anywhere to site my time-lapse camera that would be secure, apart from the
roof of one of the surrounding buildings.
We were introduced to
the Mayor Of Bethlehem, who thanked us for travelling to his city and if we
needed anything, he said we should just ask. Immediately, I asked! The
following morning at 6am I met a security guard who was to accompany me up to
the top of the Peace Centre to place my ‘pepper pot’ camera. What a view, and
ideal for the time-lapse of the tree as the decorators went about their work.
Once in place, it was time for me to wander off to take some quality images of
Bethlehem. No worries. Or so I thought.
It was 8.30 am; two hours
in and after wandering about taking photographs of everything and anything (and
being thrown out of the site of the nativity by a Greek Orthodox high priest
for possessing a tripod at the ungodly hour of 6.30am), I returned to the
square to be greeted with the tree decorators saying: “Mick, there are some
guys on the roof up there and one of them picked your camera up.”
Up on the roof
After tracking down
the mayor and pleading with him to be let back up onto the roof, I found myself
on the roof using sign language while addressing three Palestinian guys working
on electrics not to move my camera again. They nodded in agreement and I
re-positioned the pepper pot. I also took a few rooftop pics with my Canon.
At 3am the following
morning, the decorators had been very busy and the tree was nearing completion,
so it was time to go and retrieve my camera. The building was locked up, so I
went to find one of the security guards to open up for me, but he said he would
have to get permission from the army. They said, no chance! So I had a camera on top of a roof in
Bethlehem and no way of getting it back. What to do? Go for a drink!
I ordered a bottle of
local beer and sat down to lick my wounds. As luck would have it one of the
mayor’s assistants who had done most of the sorting out was having a coffee
while sorting some business. I explained my predicament and he said: “leave it
with me”.
An hour later and on
my third bottle of beer and I was staring out into the darkness and my
“pepper-pot” camera was placed on the table in front of me. Nothing was said,
just a wink.
Yes, Prime Minister
The following day it
became apparent why I wasn’t allowed back up on the roof. The Prime Minister of
Palestine, Salam Fayyad, was arriving to switch on the Christmas lights in Manger
Square and there were army snipers on the roof of the Peace Centre!
After the turn on we
were invited to the Convention Palace for dinner with the Prime Minister and
all the heads of the armed forces and politicians. What an experience it had
been.
My time-lapse has been
played on mainstream television in the UK on news programmes and morning chat
shows, as well as news channels across the globe.
My GoPro was there
when I got back and I found out that it would not have lasted any where near
the length of time needed to capture the footage required. What a blessing in
disguise? And thanks to my little
pepper pot camera, I achieved what I set out to achieve... Eventually.
Mick Ryan – January 2013